I'd start Outlook from the command line using a startup switch: Start, Run, type in "outlook.exe /cleanfreebusy" (without the quotes) and see if this solves your problem. If not, check out these links for further assistance:

About every 15 minutes, and usually when I exit Outlook 2002, I get the message "Unable to update public free/busy data. Operation failed."

The email to "losqadas" on 03/04/2002, 11:18 AM PST, suggests to "Start, Run, type in "outlook.exe /cleanfreebusy" (without the quotes) and see if this solves your problem."

I tried this and it did not help. The above message also gave four links to the microsoft solutions area but those either did not apply or I could not understand the solutions.

I have had the problem for several years. I just upgraded to XP SP2 and this did not help. My wife's .pst is the default and I also open my own .pst to access my data. That is when the message starts appearing.

I have been living with this problem for a few years. Starting outlook from "start run" with the /clearfreebusy parameter appears to have worked. In my case, I have a Dell laptop originally running NT4.0 in a company with exchange server. I purchased the computer, upgraded to 2000 and added a number of personal .pst files. Contrary to the Microsoft support links, the problem is not directly related to exchange server as I do not run that product in my home.

I just wanted to post a general comment regarding this issue. Even though some times the outlook.exe /clearfreebusy command has worked for me sometimes, there have been other times when it did not work and it turned out to be a virus.

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